community ecology

Introduction

      study of the organization and functioning of communities (community), which are assemblages of interacting populations of the species living within a particular area or habitat.

      As populations of species interact with one another, they form biological communities. The number of interacting species (biodiversity) in these communities and the complexity of their relationships exemplify what is meant by the term “biodiversity.” Structures arise within communities as species interact, and food chains, food webs, guilds, and other interactive webs are created. These relationships change over evolutionary time as species reciprocally adapt to one another through the process of coevolution. The overall structure of biological communities, the organization of interspecific interactions, and the effects the coevolutionary process has on the biological community are described below.

Biotic elements of communities

Trophic pyramids and the flow of energy

Autotrophs and heterotrophs

      All biological communities have a basic structure of interaction that forms a trophic pyramid. The trophic pyramid is made up of trophic levels (trophic level), and food energy is passed from one level to the next along the food chain (see below Food chains and food webs (community ecology)). The base of the pyramid is composed of species called autotrophs, the primary producers of the ecosystem. They do not obtain energy and nutrients by eating other organisms. Instead, they harness solar energy by photosynthesis (photoautotrophs) or, more rarely, chemical energy by oxidation (chemoautotrophs) to make organic substances from inorganic ones. All other organisms in the ecosystem are consumers called heterotrophs, which either directly or indirectly depend on the producers for food energy.

 Within all biological communities, energy at each trophic level is lost in the form of heat (as much as 80 to 90 percent), as organisms expend energy for metabolic processes such as staying warm and digesting food (Figure 2—> in the article biosphere ; see biosphere: The organism and the environment: Resources of the biosphere: The flow of energy (biosphere)). The higher the organism is on the trophic pyramid, the less energy is available to it; herbivores and detritivores (primary consumers) have less available energy than plants, and the carnivores that feed on herbivores and detritivores (secondary consumers) and those that eat other carnivores (tertiary consumers) have the least amount of available energy.

The pyramid structure of communities

      The organisms that make up the base level of the pyramid vary from community to community. In terrestrial communities, multicellular (multicellular organism) plants generally form the base of the pyramid, whereas in freshwater lakes a combination of multicellular plants and single-celled algae constitute the first trophic level. The trophic structure of the ocean is built on the plankton known as krill. There are some exceptions to this general plan. Many freshwater streams have detritus rather than living plants as their energy base. Detritus is composed of leaves and other plant parts that fall into the water from surrounding terrestrial communities. It is broken down by microorganisms, and the microorganism-rich detritus is eaten by aquatic invertebrates, which are in turn eaten by vertebrates.

      The most unusual biological communities of all are those surrounding hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor. These vents result from volcanic activity and the movement of continental plates that create cracks in the seafloor. Water seeps into the cracks, is heated by magma within the Earth's mantle, becomes laden with hydrogen sulfide, and then rises back to the ocean floor. Sulfur-oxidizing bacteria (sulfur bacterium) (chemoautotrophs) thrive in the warm, sulfur-rich water surrounding these cracks. The bacteria use reduced sulfur as an energy source for the fixation of carbon dioxide. Unlike all other known biological communities on Earth, the energy that forms the base of these deep-sea communities comes from chemosynthesis rather than from photosynthesis; the ecosystem is thus supported by geothermal rather than solar energy.

      Some species surrounding these vents feed on these bacteria, but other species have formed long-term, reciprocally beneficial relationships (mutualistic symbioses (mutualism)) with sulfur bacteria. These species harbour the chemoautotrophic bacteria within their bodies and derive nutrition directly from them. The biological communities surrounding these vents are so different from those in the rest of the ocean that since the 1980s, when biological research of these vents began, about 200 new species have been described, and there are many more that remain undescribed—i.e., not formally described and given scientific names. Among the described species there are at least 75 new genera, 15 new families, one new order, one new class, and even one new phylum.

Food chains (food chain) and food webs

 Because all species are specialized in their diets, each trophic pyramid is made up of a series of interconnected feeding relationships called food chains. Most food chains consist of three or four trophic levels. A typical sequence may be plant, herbivore, carnivore, top carnivore; another sequence is plant, herbivore, parasite of the herbivore, and parasite of the parasite. Many herbivores, detritivores, carnivores, and parasites, however, eat more than one species, and a large number of animal species eat different foods at different stages of their life histories. In addition, many species eat both plants and animals and therefore feed at more than one trophic level. Consequently, food chains combine into highly complex food webs (Figure 1—>). Even a simplified food web can show a complicated network of trophic relationships.

Keystone species

      Even a fully constructed food web, however, can provide only a superficial and static view of the structure of biological communities. Not all the relationships between species are of equal importance in the dynamics and evolution of populations and the organization of communities. Food webs include both strong and weak interactions between species, and these differences in interaction strength influence the organization of communities. Some species, called keystone species, have a disproportionately large effect on the communities in which they occur. They help to maintain local diversity within a community either by controlling populations of species that would otherwise dominate the community or by providing critical resources for a wide range of species.

      The starfish Pisaster ochraceus is a keystone species in the rocky marine intertidal communities off the northwest coast of North America. This predatory starfish feeds on the mussel Mytilus californianus and is responsible for maintaining much of the local diversity of species within certain communities. When the starfish have been removed experimentally, the mussel populations have expanded rapidly and covered the rocky intertidal shores so exclusively that other species cannot establish themselves. Consequently, the interaction between Pisaster and Mytilus supports the structure and species diversity of these communities. In other communities in which Pisaster occurs, however, the starfish has little overall effect on the structure of the community. Therefore, a species can be a keystone species in some communities but not in others.

      In some forest communities in tropical America, figs and a few other plants (Ficus) act as keystone species but in a very different manner from the starfish Pisaster. Figs bear fruit year-round in some of these forest communities, and a large number of birds and mammals rely heavily on this small group of plant species during the times of the year when other food resources are scarce. Without figs, many species would disappear from the community.

Guilds and interaction webs

      Most communities contain groups of species known as guilds, which exploit the same kinds of resources in comparable ways. The name “guild” emphasizes the fact that these groups are like associations of craftsmen who employ similar techniques in plying their trade. Guilds may consist of different insect species that collect nectar in similar ways, various bird species that employ corresponding insect-foraging techniques, or diverse plant species that have evolved comparable floral shapes with which they attract the same group of pollinators.

      Guilds often are composed of groups of closely related species that all arose from a common ancestor. They exploit resources in similar ways as a result of their shared ancestry. Hence, several species within a single genus may constitute a guild within a community. A less common but not unknown occurrence is for unrelated species to make up a guild.

      Because members of a guild engage in similar activities, it is not surprising that they are often competitors for the resources they share, especially when those resources are scarce. This competition among guilds emphasizes the fact that, in addition to food webs, the structure of the community is built on other types of interaction. Species not only eat one another; they compete for resources, forging a variety of interspecific interactions. Many species also interact cooperatively to search for food or avoid predators. These and other nontrophic relationships between species are as important as food chains and food webs in shaping the organization of biological communities (see below Interspecific interactions and the organization of communities (community ecology)).

Patterns of community structure

Ecological succession

      The structure of communities is constantly changing. All communities are subject to periodic disturbances, ranging from events that have only localized effects, such as the loss of a tree that creates a gap in the canopy of a forest, to those that have catastrophic consequences, which include wildfires that sweep across vast landscapes or storms that pound immense stretches of shoreline. Each new disturbance within a landscape creates an opportunity for a new species to colonize that region. New species also alter the character of the community, creating an environment that is suitable to even newer species. By this process, known as ecological succession, the structure of the community evolves over time.

Types of succession

      Two different types of succession, primary and secondary, have been distinguished. Primary succession occurs in essentially lifeless areas—regions in which the soil is incapable of sustaining life as a result of such factors as lava flows, newly formed sand dunes, or rocks left from a retreating glacier. Secondary succession occurs in areas where a community that previously existed has been removed; it is typified by smaller-scale disturbances that do not eliminate all life and nutrients from the environment. Events such as a fire that sweeps across a grassland or a storm that uproots trees within a forest create patches of habitat that are colonized by early successional species. Depending on the extent of the disturbance, some species may survive, other species may be recolonized from nearby habitats, and others may actually be released from a dormant condition by the disturbance. For example, many plant species in fire-prone environments have seeds that remain dormant within the soil until the heat of a fire stimulates them to germinate.

The process of succession

      Primary and secondary succession both create a continually changing mix of species within communities as disturbances of different intensities, sizes, and frequencies alter the landscape. The sequential progression of species (adaptation) during succession, however, is not random. At every stage certain species have evolved life histories to exploit the particular conditions of the community. This situation imposes a partially predictable sequence of change in the species composition of communities during succession. Initially only a small number of species from surrounding habitats are capable of thriving in a disturbed habitat. As new plant species take hold, they modify the habitat by altering such things as the amount of shade on the ground or the mineral composition of the soil. These changes allow other species that are better suited to this modified habitat to succeed the old species. These newer species are superseded, in turn, by still newer species. A similar succession of animal species occurs, and interactions between plants, animals, and environment influence the pattern and rate of successional change.

Stratification and gradation

      Community structure can become stratified both vertically and horizontally during the process of succession as species become adapted to their habitat. Gradations in environmental factors such as light, temperature, or water are responsible for this fractionation. The vertical stratification that occurs within forests results from the varying degrees of light that the different strata receive: the taller the plant and the more foliage it produces, the more light it can intercept. Three or more vertical strata of plants—an herb layer, a shrub layer, a small tree layer, and a canopy tree layer—often are found in a forest. Animals are affected by this stratification of plant life. Although they can move from one layer to another quite easily, they often adhere closely to a specific layer for foraging, breeding, or other activities.

      Horizontal patterns among species also can emerge from gradients in the physical environment. Differences in the amount of water or nutrients over a region can affect the distribution of animal and plant species (see biogeographic region). On a mountain, plant and animal species vary at different elevations as well as among the north, south, east, and west slopes. Drastic differences in certain factors over a very short distance can create sharp boundaries between communities, whereas gradual differences can produce a more integrated flow of species. These gradients help to maintain regional biodiversity.

Ecotones (ecotone)

      Ecosystems are almost always a patchwork of communities that exist at different successional stages. The sizes, frequencies, and intensities of disturbances differ among ecosystems, creating differences in what is called the patch dynamics of communities. Along the edges of each of the patches are areas called ecotones. These junction zones often contain species of each of the overlapping communities as well as some species that have become adapted specifically for living in these zones. In many cases, the number of species and the population density are greater within the ecotone than in the surrounding communities, a phenomenon known as the edge effect.

      In North America the parasitism of bird nests by brown-headed cowbirds (Molothrus ater) is particularly frequent in ecotones between mature forests and earlier successional patches. Cowbirds lay their eggs in the nests of other birds and are active mainly in early successional patches. Forest birds whose nests are deep within the interior of mature forests are less likely to be attacked than those within ecotones. The cutting of mature forests has increased the extent of ecotones, concomitantly increasing the rate of cowbird parasitism across North America.

Ecological niches (niche)

      An ecological niche encompasses the habits of a species. Essentially it refers to the way a species relates to, or fits in with, its environment. As a species adapts to the physical parameters and biota within the community, natural selection favours the development of specialized features that allow the species to uniquely exploit the surrounding resources. Physical conditions of the region—such as temperature, terrain, or nutrient availability—help to mold the niche, and biological constraints such as predation, competition, or lack of resources limit the ways in which a species exploits its environment. For example, plant species differ in their requirements for light, nutrients, and microorganisms, as well as in their ability to fend off competitors and herbivores. Herbivore species can eat only a subset of the plants available within a community, and predators can capture only some of the many potential prey species. Thus the species “carves out” a niche for itself in the community (see below Interspecific interactions and the organization of communities: Competition: The effects of competition (community ecology)).

      An example of one such niche is that of the endangered Kirtland's warbler (Dendroica kirtlandii) found in North America. It nests only among young jack pines (Pinus banksiana) that are 2 to 4 metres (6.5 to 13 feet) tall and grow in homogenous stands. These trees are exposed to periodic fires, necessary for germination of the jack pine seeds. These fires also continuously provide extensive new regions of young trees, allowing the warblers to shift their nesting sites over the years to remain within stands of jack pine that are of the preferred height.

      The niche of a species evolves as physical and biological factors in the community change—provided that such changes are slow enough to allow species to adapt to them. The main constraint on this evolution is that no two species in a community can have the same niche. Specialized modes of existence thus provide a selective advantage to coexistent species, offsetting direct competition for available resources.

biodiversity and the stability of communities

      As species adapt to one another and to their communities, they form niches and guilds. The development of more complex structures allows a greater number of species to coexist with one another. The increase in species richness and complexity acts to buffer the community from environmental stresses and disasters, rendering it more stable.

Community equilibrium and species diversity

      In some environments, succession reaches a climax, producing a stable community dominated by a small number of prominent species. This state of equilibrium, called the climax community, is thought to result when the web of biotic interactions becomes so intricate that no other species can be admitted. In other environments, continual small-scale disturbances produce communities that are a diverse mix of species, and any species may become dominant. This nonequilibrial dynamic highlights the effects that unpredictable disturbances can have in the development of community structure and composition. Some species-rich tropical forests contain hundreds of tree species within a square kilometre. When a tree dies and falls to the ground, the resultant space is up for grabs. Similarly, some coral reefs harbour hundreds of fish species, and whichever species colonizes a new disturbance patch will be the victor. With each small disturbance, the bid for supremacy begins anew.

      Diverse communities are healthy communities. Long-term ecological studies have shown that species-rich communities are able to recover faster from disturbances than species-poor communities. Species-rich grasslands (grassland) in the Midwestern United States maintain higher primary productivity than species-poor grasslands. Each additional species lost from these grasslands has a progressively greater effect on the drought-resistance of the community. Similarly, more diverse plant communities in Yellowstone National Park show greater stability in species composition during severe drought than less diverse communities. And, in the Serengeti grassland of Africa, the more diverse communities show greater stability of biomass through the seasons and greater ability to recover after grazing.

      The relationship between species diversity and community stability highlights the need to maintain the greatest richness possible within biological communities. A field of weeds containing species only recently introduced to the community is quite different from a rich interactive web of indigenous species that have had the time to adapt to one another. Undisturbed species-rich communities have the resilience to sustain a functioning ecosystem upon which life depends. These communities also are better able to absorb the effects of foreign species, which may be innocently introduced but which can wreak much ecological and economic havoc in less stable communities. The tight web of interactions that make up natural biological communities sustains both biodiversity and community stability.

Biogeographic aspects of diversity

       biogeography is the study of species distribution in an area (see biogeographic region: General features (biogeographic region)). Because islands (island) provide a controlled area for study, they have been used to observe the factors that affect species diversity. Three variables that determine the rate of colonization of an island are the size of the island, the distance between the island and other islands or the mainland, and the number of species inhabiting the surrounding lands. The theory of island biogeography is based on this information, which can help predict the number of species that will occur on a given island. It also can be used to explain the species diversity of “islands” on land, such as mountaintops, lakes, and forest fragments left after an area has been logged. Where immigration and extinction rates are equal, the theory of island biogeography states that the number of species is proportional to the size of the island and inversely proportional to the distance of the island from the mainland.

      Six months after the eruption of a volcano on the island of Surtsey off the coast of Iceland in 1963, the island had been colonized by a few bacteria, molds, insects, and birds. Within about a year of the eruption of a volcano on the island of Krakatoa in the tropical Pacific in 1883, a few grass species, insects, and vertebrates had taken hold. On both Surtsey and Krakatoa, only a few decades had elapsed before hundreds of species reached the islands. Not all species are able to take hold and become permanently established, but eventually the island communities stabilize into a dynamic equilibrium.

Interspecific interactions and the organization of communities

      The interactive relationships that arise between populations of different species form the interactive web of communities. These interactions range from antagonistic to cooperative and have either positive, negative, or neutral effects on the species involved. In antagonistic relationships the interaction is detrimental to individuals of either one or both species; in commensal relationships (commensalism) one species benefits while the other remains unaffected; and in mutualistic relationships (mutualism) both species benefit. The organization and stability of biological communities results from the mix of these different kinds of interaction.

      These relationships between species are not static; they evolve as natural selection continually shapes and reshapes them. The defenses and counterdefenses seen in the relationships between hosts and parasites, or between prey and predators, are snapshots of one point in time during the ongoing process of the evolution of interactions. As interactions between species evolve, relationships may shift from antagonism to commensalism to mutualism. As a result, the organization of biological communities is no more fixed than are the characteristics of the species or their environments. Charles Darwin called this ever-changing mix of species and their interactions the “entangled bank” and stressed its importance in the evolutionary process.

mutualism

      In attempting to unravel Darwin's entangled bank and understand how these interactions form the basic structure of communities, many popular accounts of community ecology focus on extravagant antagonistic displays between species. Although aggressive behaviours are important interspecific interactions, the amount of attention that is focused on them may create the incorrect impression that they are more important than other types of interaction. Mutualistic interactions between species are just as integral to the organization of biological communities as antagonistic relationships, with some mutualistic interactions forming the most basic elements of many communities.

      In many mutualistic relationships, one species acts as the host, and the other plays the role of visitor or resident. Plants are hosts for insects that pollinate them or eat their fruit and for microorganisms that attach themselves to their roots. In other mutualisms, such as flocks of birds that include a mixture of species, no species acts as host. Mutualisms also vary in the benefits the participants derive from the interaction. An individual may gain food, protection from enemies, a nesting site, or a combination of benefits. These benefits may vary from one population to another, thereby causing mutualistic relationships that exist between the same species to evolve in different directions in different populations.

The pervasiveness of mutualism

      Some mutualistic relationships are so pervasive that they affect almost all life-forms. The root systems of most terrestrial plant species form complex associations with the soil microorganisms. These mycorrhizal (mycorrhiza) associations aid the plant in taking up nutrients. In some environments, many plants cannot become established without the aid of associated mycorrhizae. In another relationship, legumes rely on nodule-forming associations between their roots and microorganisms to fix nitrogen, and these nitrogen-fixing plants are in turn crucial to the process of succession in biological communities.

      Mutualistic associations between animals and microorganisms are equally important to the structure of communities. Most animals rely on the microorganisms in their gut to properly digest and metabolize food. Termites require cellulose-digesting microorganisms in their gut to obtain all possible nourishment that their diet of wood can provide.

      At an even more fundamental level, the very origin of eukaryotic cells (eukaryote) (those cells having a well-defined nucleus and of which higher plants and animals, protozoa, fungi, and most algae consist) appears to have resulted from an association with various single-celled species: the mitochondria and chloroplasts that occur in eukaryotic cells are thought to have originated as separate organisms that took up residence inside other cells. Eventually neither organism was able to survive without the other—a situation called obligative symbiosis.

      In many terrestrial environments, mutualisms between animals and plants are central to the organization of biological communities. In some tropical communities, animals pollinate the flowers and disperse the seeds of almost every woody plant. In turn, a large proportion of animals rely on flowers or fruits for at least part of their diet. Leaf-cutting ants (leafcutter ant), an important species in neotropical forest communities, prepare cut leaves as a substrate on which to grow the specialized fungus gardens on which they feed. Thousands of plant species produce extrafloral nectaries on their leaves or petioles to attract many kinds of ants, which feed on the nectar and kill insect herbivores that they encounter on the plants.

The evolution of mutualism

      Although mutualisms benefit all species involved in a relationship, they are built on the same genetically selfish principles as antagonistic interactions. In fact, many mutualisms appear to have evolved from antagonistic interactions. No species behaves altruistically to promote the good of another species. Mutualisms evolve as species that come in contact manipulate each other for their own benefit. Plants evolve particular mixtures and concentrations of nectar to tempt pollinators to behave in ways that maximize pollination. Purely for their own advantage, pollinators visit plants and navigate among them to harvest nectar or pollen in the most efficient way possible. Their concern is not with how well they function as pollinators for the plants but rather with what they can extract from the plants. Mutualism results whenever the selfish activities of species happen to benefit each of them. Natural selection continues to reshape these relationships as each species evolves its ability to exploit the other.

Mutualism and cheaters

      Because mutualisms develop through the manipulation of other species, they are always susceptible to invasion by “cheaters,” those organisms that can exploit an existing relationship without reciprocating an advantage. Theft of a resource is one type of crime a cheater engages in. Some plants, for example, have coevolved with particular pollinators. The flowers of these plants have deep corollas (inner sets of leaves of the flower constituting an inner chamber) with nectar at the bottom that is accessible only to their pollinators that have long tongues or bills specialized for this purpose. Some short-tongued bees and short-billed hummingbirds, however, have developed their own adaptations—they extract nectar by piercing the base of these long corollas. Another form of cheating involves mimicking (mimicry) the appearance of one species in order to subvert an existing mutualistic association. This subversion has occurred between cleaner fish and their hosts. Cleaner fish are highly specialized fish that pick parasites off the skin of other fish. Host fish arrive at specific sites where they present themselves to the cleaner fish that groom them. Other fish have evolved to resemble the cleaner fish, but, rather than search for parasites, these imposters take a bite out of the host fish.

      Other cheaters use different deceptive devices to exploit mutualistic interactions. Crab spiders, phymatid bugs, and some praying mantids use flowers as places to wait for prey: they have evolved a camouflage that allows them to hide from the pollinating insects they feed on. Rather than construct a web or search through the vegetation to capture prey, this type of predator merely remains frozen on a flower until an unsuspecting pollinator stumbles into its clutches.

      As cheaters evolve to exploit a mutualism, they can cause the symbiotic relationship itself to break down unless new ways of thwarting the pretenders evolve within the host population.

Community structure and the spread of mutualism

 As mutualisms spread within biological communities over evolutionary time, they make possible new lifestyles that rely on the availability of a number of mutualistic species. Once fleshy fruits had evolved in many plant species and had begun to occur together within communities, bird species evolved that were specialized physiologically to feed on fruits year-round rather than as a short-term seasonal addition to their diet. Resplendent quetzals (trogon) (Pharomachrus mocinno) and oilbirds (oilbird) (Steatornis caripensis) have evolved in tropical American forests that have a succession of fruit species throughout the year. These highly specialized birds feed almost exclusively on fruits, supplying fruit even to their nestlings, and hence are called frugivores. To maintain this year-round diet of fruit, resplendent quetzals consume at least 43 fruit species from 17 plant families, and oilbirds eat at least 36 fruit species from 10 plant families. Similarly, hummingbirds, social bees such as honeybees, and other species that feed on nectar (nectarivores) and have life spans longer than the flowering time of one plant species have mutualistic relationships with a succession of pollinating species in order to survive.

      This reliance on a succession of species by some frugivores and nectarivores is one reason that the piecemeal extinction of one plant species from biological communities, so common in recent decades, has such potentially disastrous consequences. The mutualisms between nectarivores and flowers, and between frugivores and fruits, are not just extraneous additions to the organization of biological communities. They are central relationships, because they ensure that the next generation of plants is produced and distributed throughout the landscape. The local extinction of a seemingly obscure plant, however, could easily lead to the local extinction of frugivores and nectarivores if these animals rely on that plant during times of scarcity of alternative plants. The importance of the seasonal succession of flowering and fruiting plant species and their associated nectarivores and frugivores to maintaining the normal functioning of terrestrial communities is only beginning to be appreciated.

Antagonism

      Although mutualisms are common in all biological communities, they occur side by side with a wide array of antagonistic interactions. As life has evolved, natural selection has favoured organisms that are able to efficiently extract energy and nutrients from their environment. Because organisms are concentrated packages of energy and nutrients in themselves, they can become the objects of antagonistic interactions. Moreover, because resources often are limited, natural selection also has favoured the ability of organisms to compete against one another for them. The result has been the evolution of a great diversity of lifestyles. This diversity can be categorized in any number of ways, but the edges of all the categories blend with one another. Evolution continues to mix all the different kinds of interspecific interactions into novel ways of life.

      One way of understanding the diversity of antagonistic interactions is through the kinds of hosts or prey that species attack. Carnivores attack animals, herbivores (herbivore) attack plants, and fungivores attack fungi. Other species are omnivorous, attacking a wide range of plants, animals, and fungi. Regardless of the kinds of foods they eat, however, there are some general patterns in which species interact. Parasitism, grazing, and predation are the three major ways in which species feed on one another. The parasite lives on and feeds off its host, usually decreasing the host's ability to survive but not killing it outright. Grazing species are not as closely tied to their food source as parasites and often vary their diet between two or more species without directly killing them. Predators, however, capture and kill members of other species for food.

parasitism

Types of parasites

      Parasitism is thought to be the most common way of life, and parasitic organisms may account for as many as half of all living species. Examples include pathogenic fungi and bacteria, plants that tap into the stems or roots of other plants, insects that as larvae feed on a single plant, and parasitic wasps. Parasites live in or on a single host throughout either a stage in their lives or their entire life span, thereby decreasing the survival or reproduction of their hosts. This lifestyle has arisen many times throughout evolution. The most species-rich groups of organisms are parasites, which, in becoming specialized to live off their hosts alone, eventually become genetically distinct from their species, sometimes to the degree that they are considered a new species ( speciation).

 One common type of parasite is the parasitoid, an insect whose larvae feed and develop within or on the bodies of other arthropods. Each parasitoid larva develops on a single individual and eventually kills that host. Most parasitoids are wasps (Figure 2—>), but some flies and a small number of beetles, moths, lacewings, and even one caddisfly species have evolved to be parasitoids. Parasitoids alone number about 68,000 named species, and most parasitoids have yet to be named and described. Realistic estimates of the total number of described and undescribed parasitoid species are about 800,000.

      The number of species of insects that develop as nymphs or larvae on a single plant host may outnumber the parasitoids. There is currently a great deal of debate concerning the number of species worldwide, and this debate centres on the number of plant-feeding insect species, many of which inhabit the canopies of tropical trees. These species have been almost impossible to collect until recently when techniques allowing access to the canopies have been adapted from mountain-climbing methods. All ecologists and systematists working on these estimates agree that there are at least a few million plant-feeding insect species, but the estimates range from 2 to 30 million.

      Estimates of the number of pathogenic fungi, parasitic nematodes, and other parasitic groups also have increased as ecological and molecular studies are revealing many previously unrecognized species. Continued work on biodiversity worldwide will allow better estimates to be made of the Earth's inventory of species, which is a major prerequisite for understanding the role of parasites in the organization of communities and in the conservation of diversity.

Specialization in parasites

      It is now evident that the parasitic lifestyle often favours extreme specialization to a single host or a small group of hosts. Living for a long period of time on a single host, a parasite must remain attached within or on its host, avoid the defenses of its host, and obtain all its nutrition from that host. Unlike grazers or predators, parasites cannot move from host to host, supplementing their diet with a variety of foods.

      Estimates of the number of species worldwide have risen sharply in recent decades owing to research revealing parasitic species to be much more specific to one host species than previously realized. What once may have been considered a single parasitic species attacking many different host species has often turned out to be a group of very similar, yet distinct, parasitic species, each specialized to its own host. This speciation occurs because different parasitic populations become adapted to living on different hosts and coping with the defenses of these hosts. Over time, many of these different parasite populations evolve into genetically distinct species. It is through the specialization of individuals of a species onto different hosts, ultimately resulting in speciation, that parasitism appears to have become the most common way of life on Earth.

      For example, swallowtail butterflies (Papilio) include more than 500 species worldwide. In most species an adult female lays her eggs on a host plant, and, after they hatch, the caterpillars complete their development by feeding parasitically on that plant. In North America there are two groups of these butterflies that have evolved to use different hosts: the tiger swallowtail group and the Old World swallowtail group (Papilio machaon). In the Old World swallowtail group are several species that feed on plants in the carrot family Apiaceae (also called Umbelliferae), with different populations feeding on different plant species. However, one species within this group, the Oregon swallowtail (Papilio oregonius), has become specialized to feed on tarragon sagebrush (Artemisia dracunculus), which is in the plant family Asteracaea (Compositae of some sources). Among the tiger swallowtail group, various members have become specialized to different plant hosts. The eastern tiger swallowtail (Papilio glaucus) has a long list of recorded hosts, but it is now known that the northern and southern populations are adapted to different plant species, and these populations cannot develop on the others' hosts.

Alternation among hosts

      Although many parasitic species complete all developmental stages on a single host individual, thousands of other parasitic species alternate between two or more host species, specializing on a different host species at each developmental stage. Many parasites, from a diverse array of species such as certain viruses, flatworms, nematodes, and aphids, specialize on different host species at different stages of development. Among aphids alone at least 2,700 species alternate among hosts.

      Parasites have evolved by three major evolutionary routes to alternate among two or more hosts. Some parasite species have evolved to alternate between their final host and an intermediate host, or vector, that transfers the parasite from one final host to another: the malarial parasite Plasmodium falciparum alternates between a final human host and an intermediate mosquito host by which the parasite is transferred from one person to another. The parasite uses the mosquito as a mobile hypodermic syringe. Examples of a similar kind of transmission between a final host and an intermediate host with piercing mouthparts occur in many other species. Viruses, rickettsias, protozoa, and nematodes all have species that are transmitted between vertebrates through biting flies. Some viruses and other parasites are similarly transmitted between plant species by aphids, whose piercing mouthparts transmit the parasites directly into plant tissues while the aphids are feeding.

      Other parasites alternate between a host and the predator that eats it. These parasites have turned an evolutionary problem (being killed along with their host) into an evolutionary opportunity (being transferred to the predator and continuing to feed). As it develops, the parasite attacks hosts higher in the food chain, alternating between herbivore and predator or between an intermediate and a top predator in the food chain. Many parasites alternate between snails or other invertebrates and vertebrate predators that feed upon these invertebrates; others alternate among vertebrate species. The pork tapeworm (Taenia solium), for example, alternates between pigs and humans in societies in which improperly cooked pork is eaten.

      Still other parasites employ wings, wind, or water to alternate between hosts. Many aphid species alternate between a summer host and a winter host by producing winged individuals that fly to the new host. Rust fungi such as wheat stem rust can be carried between hosts by wind currents, and the parasite Schistosoma mansoni, which causes the disease schistosomiasis, alternates between Biomphalaria snails and humans by moving through water.

      The different ways by which host species are linked to parasites contribute to the complex web of interactions that shape the structure of communities. The effect of parasitism on the dynamics of populations and the organization of communities is still one of the most underexplored topics in ecology.

Grazing

The strategy of grazing

      The word “grazing” conjures up images of large mammals moving through seas of grass. Grazing, however, is a form of interspecific interaction that has been adopted by a number of other groups as well. A grazer is defined as any species that moves from one victim to another, feeding on part of each victim without actually killing it outright. The “victim” is to the grazer as prey is to the predator. Hence, grasshoppers that jump from plant to plant, chewing a portion of the leaves of each one they visit, are grazers, as are caterpillars that crawl from one plant to another during development rather than remain as parasites on an individual plant. The grazing lifestyle differs from the parasitic lifestyle in a few important ways. Individuals can vary their diets with different foods, and, by not remaining attached to a single individual for long periods of time, their victims do not have time to develop induced specialized defenses, such as an immune response that a host can develop against a parasite.

      Grazing is more commonly perpetrated on plants than animals because plants have a modular structure that allows a part of them to be lost without the whole individual being destroyed. In contrast, most animals that lose a part of the body to an antagonist die immediately or soon afterward, rendering the interaction an act of predation rather than grazing. An exception to this rule occurs in species that can disconnect body parts—some lizards and salamanders are able to detach their tails if they are attacked by a predator.

Specialization in grazing

      On most continents, reciprocal evolutionary changes, or coevolution, between grasses (grassland) and large grazing mammals have taken place over periods of millions of years. Many grass species have evolved the ability to tolerate high levels of grazing, which is evident to anyone who regularly mows a lawn. Simultaneously, they have evolved other defenses, such as high silica content, which reduces their palatability to some grazers. A number of herbivorous mammals have responded to these defenses by evolving the ability to specialize on grasses with high silica content and low nutritional value. Many large grazing mammals such as elephants have high-crowned (hypsodont) teeth that are constantly replaced by growth from below as the crowns are worn down by the silica in their food. Many of these species also have complicated digestive systems with a gut full of microflora and microfauna capable of extracting many of the nutrients from the plants.

      Not all grasslands, however, are adapted to grazing by large mammals. In North America, although the grasslands of the Great Plains coevolved with large herds of bison, the grasslands of the upper Intermontane West (which roughly includes eastern Washington and Oregon) have never supported these large grazing herds. The Great Plains had grasses that formed sods and could withstand trampling by large-hooved mammals. These sods were so tightly interwoven that early European settlers cut them to use as roofs for their houses. The grasses of the Intermontane West, however, were tuft grasses that did not form sods and quickly died when trampled. Consequently, when cows replaced bison as the large, grazing mammal of North America, the grasslands of the Great Plains sustained the grazing pressure, whereas those of the Intermontane West rapidly eroded. Similar problems have arisen in other parts of the world where cattle have been introduced into grasslands that did not have a history of coevolution with large grazing mammals.

      Plants have evolved more than 10,000 chemical compounds that are not involved in primary metabolism, and most of these compounds are thought to have evolved as defenses against herbivores and pathogens. Some of these chemical compounds are defenses against grazers, whereas others are defenses against parasites. Most of the chemical compounds that make herbs so flavourful and useful in cooking probably evolved as defenses against enemies. These compounds, called allelochemicals, are found in almost all plant species, and their great diversity suggests that chemical defense against herbivores and pathogens has always been an important part of plant evolution.

predation

 Predation differs from both parasitism and grazing in that the victims are killed immediately. Predators therefore differ from parasites and grazers in their effects on the dynamics of populations and the organization of communities. As with parasitism and grazing, predation is an interaction that has arisen many times in many taxonomic groups worldwide. Bats that capture insects in flight (seephotograph—>), starfish that attack marine invertebrates, flies that attack other insects, and adult beetles that scavenge the ground for seeds are all examples of the predatory lifestyle. cannibalism, in which individuals of the same species prey on one another, also has arisen many times and is common in some animal species. Some salamanders and toads have tadpoles that occur in two forms, one of which has a specialized head that allows it to cannibalize other tadpoles of the same species.

      Because predators kill their prey immediately, natural selection favours the development of a variety of quick defenses against predators. In contrast, the hosts of parasites and the victims of grazers can respond in other ways. A parasitized host can induce defenses over a longer period of time as the parasite develops within it, and a plant population subjected to grazing can evolve traits that minimize the effects of losing leaves, branches, or flowers. Therefore, the evolution of interactions between parasites and hosts, grazers and victims, and predators and prey all differ from one another as a result of the ways in which the interaction affects the victim.

Specialization in predation

 Most predators attack more than one prey species. Nevertheless, there are some ecological conditions that have permitted the evolution of highly specialized predators that attack only a few prey species. The evolution of specialization in predators (and in grazers) requires that the prey species be predictably available year after year as well as easy to find and abundant throughout the year or during the periods of time when other foods are scarce. In addition, the prey must require some form of specialization of the predator to be captured, handled, and digested successfully as the major part of a diet. The most specialized predators attack prey that fulfill these ecological conditions. Examples include anteaters (seephotograph—>), aardwolves, and numbats that eat only ants or termites, which are among the most abundant insects in many terrestrial communities. Among birds, snail kites (Rostrhamus sociabilis) are perhaps the most specialized predators. They feed almost exclusively on snails of the genus Pomacea, using their highly hooked bills to extract these abundant snails from their shells.

      Some seed (seed and fruit) predators are also highly specialized to attack the seeds of only one or a few plant species. (Seed consumption is considered predation because the entire living embryo of a plant is destroyed.) Crossbills (crossbill) exhibit one of the most extreme examples of specialization. These birds have beaks that allow them to pry open the closed cones of conifers to extract the seeds. The exact shape of their bills varies among populations and species in both North America and Europe. Experiments on red crossbills (Loxia curvirostra) have shown that different populations of these birds have bill sizes and shapes that have been adapted to harvest efficiently only one conifer species. Hence, red crossbills are a complex of populations, each adapted to different conifer species.

Effect on community structure

      Predators can greatly affect the structure of communities. For example, seed predators commonly scour the ground for each year's seed crop, eating most of the seeds produced by many different species each year. To defend against these predators, certain plants are thought to resort to mast seeding, which is the production of many seeds by the plant every two or more years in regional synchrony with other plants of the same species. Mast seeding is an effective defense because the seed predators become satiated before all the seeds have been consumed. The consequence of mast seeding for the organization of communities is that, instead of a few new seedlings establishing themselves every year, major pulses occur over time during which new plants become established and old plants die. Many conifers in boreal forests exhibit mast seeding as do other species such as bamboos (bamboo). Some bamboo species grow for 100 years or more before producing seeds. Then all at once the bamboo plants over a large geographic region will set seed and die in the same year.

competition

      Competition is a powerful form of interaction in the organization of communities, but it differs from other forms of antagonistic and mutualistic relationships in that no species benefits from the interaction. In competitive interactions, species evolve either to avoid each other, to tolerate the presence of the other, or to aggressively exclude the other.

Types of competition

      Species compete for almost every conceivable kind of resource, and the same two species may compete for different resources in different environments. Hole-nesting birds compete for tree holes, plant species compete for pollinators and seed dispersers, and male birds compete for preferred sites to defend as territories for attracting females. Species may compete for many resources simultaneously, but often one resource, called the limiting resource because it limits the population growth of each species, is the focus of competition. Moreover, the ways in which species compete vary with the resources. In some cases, species compete by capturing resources faster than their competitors (exploitation competition). Some plant species, for example, are able to extract water and nutrients from the soil faster than surrounding species. In other cases, the two species physically interfere with one another (interference competition) by aggressively attempting to exclude one another from particular habitats.

The effects of competition

      Over evolutionary time, the effects of competition on species can vary. In some environments, the effects may be highly asymmetrical, and, at the extreme called amensalism, the survival or growth of one species may be inhibited and the other(s) not affected. The weaker competitor will either go extinct locally, diverge from the other species in its use of resources, or evolve an increased competitive ability. All three outcomes have been observed in natural and experimental populations studied by ecologists.

      Species diverge from one another through competition, with the result that they fill different niches within the community. The great differences in bill size and shape that some of Darwin's finches in the Galapagos have evolved have resulted from competition. This process, called character displacement, results as natural selection favours those individuals in each species that compete least with individuals of the other species. Experimental studies of coexisting seed-feeding rodents in the deserts of North America have shown that these species have evolved differences in size and other characteristics to minimize competition.

      By evolving in response to one another, many competitors (competitive exclusion, principle of) may be able to coexist regionally over the long term but not locally. Within any local area, one species may generally be driven to extinction by the other. Which species wins locally will depend on the physical environment, the genetic makeup of each of the competing species, and their interactions with other species in the community. Even subtle changes in the environment can affect which species wins. Experiments with species of flies (Drosophila) have shown that, when all other factors are held constant, small variations in temperature or in the percentage of ethanol in the larval environment can determine which species outcompetes the other. Hence, the continued coexistence of some competing species may depend critically on multiple populations of both or all species being distributed over a number of environments throughout a region (see population ecology: Regulation of populations: Metapopulations (population ecology)).

commensalism and other types of interaction

      In commensal interactions, one species benefits and the other is unaffected. The commensal organism may depend on its host for food, shelter, support, transport, or a combination of these.

      One example of commensalism involves a small crab that lives inside an oyster's shell. The crab enters the shell as a larva and receives shelter while it grows. Once fully grown, however, it is unable to exit through the narrow opening of the two valves, and so it remains within the shell, snatching particles of food from the oyster but not harming its unwitting benefactor. Another form of commensalism occurs between small plants called epiphytes (epiphyte) and the large tree branches on which they grow. Epiphytes depend on their hosts for structural support but do not derive nourishment from them or harm them in any way.

      Many other kinds of interaction, however, range from antagonism to commensalism to mutualism, depending on the ecological circumstances. For example, plant-feeding insects may have large detrimental effects on plant survival or reproduction if they attack small or nonvigorous plants but may have little or no effect on large or vigorous plants of the same species. Some human diseases may cause only temporary discomfort or be life-threatening, depending on the age and physical condition of the person.

      No interaction between species fits neatly into the categories of antagonism, commensalism, or mutualism. The interaction depends on the genetic makeup of both species and the age, size, and physical condition of the individuals. Interactions may even depend on the composition of the community in which the interaction takes place. For example, the moth Greya politella pollinates (pollination) the flowers of a small herb called the prairie star (Lithophragma parviflorum). The female moth pollinates while she lays eggs (oviposits) in the corolla of the flower. As she pushes her abdomen down into a flower, pollen adheres to her. She flies on to the next flower to lay more eggs, where some of the pollen rubs off onto the stigma of the flower, causing pollination to occur. Although this unusual pollination mechanism is very effective in some local populations, in other communities different pollinators such as bee flies and bees are so common that their visits to the flowers swamp the pollination efforts of the moths. As a result, pollination by the moths makes up a very tiny proportion of all the pollinator visits that occur within that community and probably has little effect on plant reproduction or natural selection. This moth, therefore, is a commensal in some populations and a mutualist in others, depending on the local assemblage of pollinator species.

The coevolutionary process

      As pairs or groups of species interact, they evolve in response to each other. These reciprocal evolutionary changes in interacting species are called coevolutionary processes, one of the primary methods by which biological communities are organized. Through coevolution local populations of interacting species become adapted to one another, sometimes even evolving into new species.

The study of coevolution

      To understand how coevolution shapes interactions within communities, researchers must distinguish between traits that have coevolved and those that were already present in ancestors before the interspecific interaction began. For example, hummingbirds use their wings and bills to reach the nectar within flowers. A hummingbird with a long bill may have evolved its bill as a result of coevolution with a particular species of flower; however, its wings are not the result of coevolution. Wings were already present in birds before hummingbirds evolved. Therefore, both the evolutionary ecology and the history (phylogeny) of the interacting species must be studied. The phylogeny indicates when each species arose within a lineage and when each new trait made its first appearance. The ecological studies can then show how each of those traits has been shaped by and used under different ecological conditions.

 The study of the coevolution between moths of the family Prodoxidae and their host plants illustrates the interplay of phylogeny and ecology. Prodoxid moths include some species that have become major pollinators of plants. These pollinators include yucca moths (yucca moth) (of the genera Tegeticula and Parategeticula) and Greya moths (see above Interspecific interactions and the organization of communities: Commensalism and other types of interaction (community ecology)). Greya moths inadvertently, or passively, pollinate the flowers they visit, but their close relatives the yucca moths purposely, or actively, perform this function. Female yucca moths collect and carry pollen on specialized appendages attached to their mouthparts. They visit yucca flowers to lay their eggs in the floral ovary, and their offspring feed on the developing seeds (seephotograph—>). While visiting each flower, a female moth takes some of the pollen she is carrying and places it directly on the stigma of the flower. Her offspring are therefore guaranteed developing seeds on which to feed. The yuccas have evolved to depend solely on these moths for pollination. Unlike many other plant species, they do not produce nectar or any other reward for pollinators and so do not waste energy to attract pollinators. They lose some of their seeds to the yucca moth larvae, but this is the cost of coevolution with this highly efficient pollinator.

      Phylogenetic (phylogeny) studies have shown that the loss of nectar production in yuccas and the evolution of active pollination in yucca moths are novel traits that have arisen through coevolution, as the relatives of yuccas produce nectar, and the relatives of yucca moths, the Greya moths, do not actively pollinate their host plants. Some other aspects of the interaction make use of traits that did not coevolve between yuccas and yucca moths. Instead, the traits were present in ancestors. Laying eggs in flowers and local specialization to one plant species are two traits that are common to all the close relatives of yucca moths, regardless of the plants on which they feed.

      Therefore, by combining ecological and phylogenetic studies, researchers can piece together the history of coevolution between these species. The coevolved mutualism between yuccas and yucca moths began when their ancestors inadvertently became more successful at survival and reproduction as a result of their interactions. Yuccas that did not waste energy on nectar production to attract other pollinators achieved an advantage over those plants that did; yucca moths that ensured the availability of developing seeds for their offspring by actively pollinating the flowers in which they laid their eggs also gained an advantage over populations that did not do so. The process undoubtedly involved many other twists and turns along the way, but the combination of evolutionary ecological and phylogenetic studies allows at least part of the coevolutionary process to be reconstructed.

      All coevolved interactions are similar to those between yuccas and yucca moths in that natural selection operates on traits that are already present within species, molding them in new ways by favouring new mutations that fine-tune the relationship. Tinkering rather than engineering is how the biologist François Jacob described the process of evolution, and his analogy certainly extends to the coevolutionary process. Coevolved interactions are not designed from scratch for maximum efficiency. Instead, evolution fiddles with existing structures and behaviours and adapts them to perform new functions—in effect, jury-rigging them. Consequently, the organization of biological communities reflects this makeshift nature of adaptation and coevolution.

The coevolutionary “arms race” versus reduced antagonism

      Nothing is absolutely predictable about the direction of coevolution. How an interaction coevolves depends not only on the current genetic makeup of the species involved but also on new mutations that arise, the population characteristics of each species, and the community context in which the interaction takes places. Under some ecological conditions, an antagonistic interaction between two species can coevolve to enhance the antagonism; the species “build up” methods of defense and attack, much like an evolutionary arms race. Under other ecological conditions, however, the antagonism may be lessened, resulting in reduced antagonism.

Predator-prey (predation) interactions

      In an evolutionary arms race, natural selection progressively escalates the defenses and counterdefenses of the species. The thick calcareous shells of many marine mollusks and the powerful drilling appendages and musculature of their predators are thought to have coevolved through this process of escalation. A similar example of coevolution has occurred in the endemic mollusks and crabs in Lake Tanganyika (Tanganyika, Lake). The mollusks in this lake have much thicker shells than other freshwater mollusks, and the endemic crab that feeds on them has much larger chelae (pincerlike claws) than other freshwater crabs. Differences between these mollusks and crabs and the freshwater species throughout the world to which they are related appear to be due to coevolution rather than any unique nutrient or mineral conditions in this lake.

Parasite (parasitism)-host interactions

      Parasites and their hosts engage in a similar evolutionary arms race, although in the past parasitologists believed this not to be the case. Instead, parasites were thought to evolve gradually toward reduced antagonism—having a less detrimental effect on their hosts. The degree of virulence was sometimes regarded as an indicator of the age of the relationship: a very virulent relationship, which resulted in the swift demise of the host, was considered new. Research in population biology and evolutionary ecology, however, provided evidence that contradicts this view. Parasite-host interactions are now understood to evolve toward either increased or decreased antagonism, depending on several important ecological factors.

      The density of the host population and the transmission rate of the parasite are two of the most important of these ecological factors. The density of the host species determines how often the opportunity arises for a parasite to move from one host to another; the transmission rate of the parasite determines how easily a parasite can move between hosts when the opportunity does arise. Only some parasites are transmitted easily between hosts. If the host occurs at a high density and the transmission rate of the parasite is also high, then natural selection favours increased virulence in the parasite. Being easily transmissible and having many host individuals to infect, the parasite can multiply quickly and escape to new hosts before it kills its current host and dies along with it. Some forms (genotypes) of the parasite will already contain or will develop mutations that increase the speed and proficiency of this process. By producing more organisms that survive, the mutated form of the parasite will outcompete those parasites with the original genotype that are not able to maximize the opportunity to infect the greatest number of hosts. After several generations, many more parasites with enhanced virulence will exist, and this genotype can be said to be favoured by natural selection. If host population density remains high, the parasite genotype that confers the most virulence will become the only form of the parasite in that population.

      At the other extreme, if the host population density is low and the transmission rate of the parasite is also low, natural selection will favour less virulent forms of the parasite. The highly virulent forms that quickly kill their host will often die along with their host without having spread to other hosts, leaving only the less virulent parasites to propagate the species.

      In many natural environments, host populations fluctuate between high and low density. Consequently, the parasite population will fluctuate as well, sometimes containing more highly virulent forms, sometimes less virulent forms. Depending on the rate at which host density fluctuates, the host population will vary in the degree and mix of virulent forms that it harbours.

      The evolution of myxoma (myxomatosis) virus in rabbits in Australia shows how quickly coevolution of parasites and hosts can proceed to a new outcome, in this case intermediate virulence. European rabbits were introduced into Australia in the 1800s. In the absence of parasites and predators that had kept their numbers in check in their European habitat, they multiplied and disseminated rapidly, causing widespread destruction of the native vegetation. When the myxoma virus was introduced into Australia in 1950 to control rabbit populations, it was highly virulent and caused death in almost all infected rabbits within two weeks. Since then, however, coevolution of the virus and rabbit populations has occurred, resulting in an interaction less immediately lethal to the rabbits. As population levels of the rabbits decreased, mutant strains of the virus that allowed a rabbit host to live longer were favoured, thereby increasing the opportunity for the virus to spread to another rabbit before its current host died. Most infected rabbits still die from the infection, but death is not as relentless and most infected individuals survive for two and a half to four weeks after infection.

Coevolution and the organization of communities (community)

The importance of interspecific interactions

      The coevolution of the myxoma virus and rabbit species described above illustrates how this process operates to maintain the organization of biological communities, averting the havoc that might ensue without the proper checks and balances that the process ensures. Unfortunately the importance of interspecific interactions may become apparent only after the balance of a community has been disrupted, often by human hands and often with serious reverberations. If the rabbit species had not been introduced into a community in which none of its natural predators were found, its potential for devastation would not be fully appreciated. Interspecies interactions are necessary to maintain population levels of moderate size, and they function in most biological communities in much the same way that the rabbit population was controlled by myxoma virus.

Human disruption

      As biological communities are dismantled through human activities, coevolutionary processes and their effects on the organization of communities are disrupted. Changes in population density and the introduction of new species can cause the extinction of other species. In the process, the way natural selection acts on the remaining species within those communities is altered. Increased population densities of some species, for example, are likely to favour the evolution of more virulent genotypes of some parasites (see above The coevolutionary “arms race” versus reduced antagonism (community ecology)). Low population levels of other species can cause the chance loss of genes important to the ongoing coevolution of other interactions. It will seldom be possible to predict how these changes in coevolution will affect the organization of communities, because of the intricate interdependencies among all organisms of the biosphere.

Gene-for-gene coevolution

      In some interactions between parasites and hosts, coevolution can take a specific form called gene-for-gene coevolution or matching-gene coevolution. It is a form of reciprocal evolutionary change based on the idea that, if one member of a coevolving relationship has a gene that affects the relationship, the other member has a gene to counter this effect. These genes evolve reciprocally and provide the genetic basis for certain types of coevolution. This relationship has been demonstrated between plants and a number of their parasites, including rust fungi, nematodes, bacteria, viruses, and one insect species. Its principles also form the basis of many plant breeding programs designed to increase resistance against pathogens.

      The process of gene-for-gene coevolution begins when a parasite population encounters a new plant host. Most host individuals will not be able to detect the presence of the parasite. Certain host individuals, however, may have a mutated gene, dubbed the resistance gene in this scenario, that allows them to detect a substance the parasite emits, encoded by a so-called avirulence gene. After being alerted to the threat of the parasite, the host responds to prevent the parasite from invading. The resistance gene will confer an advantage to plants that carry it, allowing individuals to survive and pass on their genotype to future generations. Individuals that do not possess this gene will not be able to resist invasion by the parasite and will die, unable to pass on their genotype. Thus, the new resistance gene will spread through the plant population. At this point the parasite might seem to be outwitted, but actually it may be able to circumvent this genetic evasion by the host with a genetic trick of its own. If a mutation arises in the gene that codes for the product that the host recognizes, the gene product will be altered and the host will no longer be able to resist the parasite. The spread of this mutant gene in the parasite population will be favoured by natural selection. A genetic Ping-Pong match between the two species can then ensue, as the host develops another mutation in any gene that allows it to detect the parasite, and the parasite responds to this defensive maneuver with a genetic alteration to avoid detection. The host and parasite populations therefore coevolve by the accumulation of these matching genes.

      In agriculture (agricultural technology), gene-for-gene relationships are maintained by introducing new resistance genes into all plants that cover a large area. In natural populations, each new resistance gene appears as a mutant in a single individual and then spreads by natural selection throughout the population in subsequent generations. Demonstrating a gene-for-gene relationship in natural populations is a difficult and time-consuming process because it demands detailed genetic and ecological studies of the plants and their pathogens that take many years.

      The best-studied example is that of wild flax (Linum marginale) and flax rust (Melampsora lini) in Australia. Local populations of flax plants and flax rust harbour multiple matching genes for resistance and avirulence. The number of genes and their frequency within local populations fluctuate greatly over time as coevolution continues. In small populations, the resistance genes can be lost by chance alone through the process of genetic drift (see biosphere: The organism and the environment: The diversity of life (biosphere)). New genes in the host and parasite populations can appear through either mutation or the influx of genes from other populations. Consequently, the long-term dynamics of the gene-for-gene coevolution between flax and flax rust depend on the rate at which new genes appear within local populations of the parasite and host, the intensity with which natural selection acts on these genes (which, in turn, depends on the virulence of the particular parasite genotype), the population sizes of both host and parasite, and the rate that genes are transferred among populations.

      Not all interactions between plants and parasites coevolve in a gene-for-gene manner. Resistance in a plant host is often determined by many genes rather than by a single gene. Examples of gene-for-gene coevolution, however, are slowly accumulating, and these are providing a powerful tool in breeding crop plants that are resistant to pathogens and parasites. As other forms of coevolution are studied in natural populations, the results will help determine still other ways of selecting for more durable resistance in crop plants. Such studies, however, require that intact biological communities are preserved as precious natural laboratories for understanding the coevolutionary process.

The geographic mosaic theory of coevolution

      The study of evolving interactions in natural biological communities has indicated that the long-term dynamics of coevolution may occur over large geographic ranges rather than within local populations. This view is called the geographic mosaic theory of coevolution. It is based on the observation that a species may adapt and become specialized to another species differently in separate regions. A species that is involved in an interspecific interaction in one geographic area may not even be present in another geographic area. This geographic mosaic in evolving interactions provides the raw material for the overall direction of coevolution, which proceeds as genes that are favoured in local interactions spread out into other populations.

      Some local populations may contribute little to the overall direction of coevolution between two or more species, whereas other populations may be crucial to the process. A highly virulent form of a parasite that recently has been introduced into a local population may cause the extinction of its host population, thereby causing its own extinction. In another population the evolution of a powerful host resistance gene may cause the local extinction of the parasite population. In still other populations the two species may continue to coexist but coevolve in different ways. Over a long period some adaptations in these populations will spread to other populations and influence the overall direction of coevolution between the parasite and host species. Similar geographic differences in interactions are known to occur between predators and prey and between competitors and mutualists.

      For some forms of coevolution to occur at a geographic level, many populations of the interacting species must be maintained on a local scale (metapopulations) as well as across broader geographic ranges. Should a species be reduced to a few populations, the geographic mosaic of diverse adaptations that fuels the coevolutionary process is diminished.

Coevolution of one species with several species

  In the process called coevolutionary alternation, one species coevolves with several other species by shifting among the species with which it interacts over many generations. European cuckoos (Cuculus canorus) provide an example of this type of coevolution. The cuckoos behave as brood parasites, laying their eggs in the nests of other avian species and depending on these hosts to raise their young (seephotograph—>). The four major host species for cuckoos in Britain are meadow pipits (Anthus pratensis), reed warblers (Acrocephalus scirpaceus; see photograph—>), pied wagtails (Motacilla alba yarrellii), and dunnocks (dunnock) (Prunella modularis).

      Cuckoo populations have evolved many adaptations that enable them to trick their hosts into rearing their young, the most impressive of which is the production of eggs that resemble those of their host. Cuckoos can produce eggs that are very similar in colour to the eggs of meadow pipits, reed warblers, or pied wagtails. Three different cuckoo genotypes are responsible for the production of these three different egg colours, and thus cuckoos are said to be polymorphic with respect to egg colour. These genotypes are maintained in cuckoo populations because natural selection is continually changing which genotype is favoured. This occurs because after many generations the host species can develop defenses against the cuckoo, such as the ability to discriminate between eggs and eject those that have only minute differences from their own. (That this ability to reject eggs is evolved is evidenced by the fact that in Iceland, where cuckoos are not indigenous, pied wagtails and meadow pipits will accept cuckoo eggs placed in their nests by researchers.) As the gene for this defensive maneuver spreads throughout the host population, cuckoos with genotypes that allow them to produce eggs mimicking the egg colour of a new host are favoured.

      By alternating among hosts, cuckoos are coevolving with a number of bird species in Britain. Some of their current hosts, including dunnocks, have few defenses against cuckoos and do not reject cuckoo eggs, which may indicate that these hosts have been targeted by cuckoos relatively recently. Some other potential hosts that cuckoos do not currently colonize will strongly reject any eggs that are not exactly like their own, suggesting that these bird species may have been hosts in the recent past but were abandoned by cuckoos after defenses against them evolved. Over many generations, these former hosts will probably lose their defenses because the evolutionary pressure to retain them has been relaxed—they are no longer being attacked by cuckoos. In Britain the loss of these kinds of defenses makes the birds once again targets for attack by cuckoos, thereby continuing the process of coevolutionary alternation among hosts.

Coevolution among groups of species

      Coevolution often involves even larger numbers of species, but many of these coevolving interactions are much more difficult to study than paired or alternating relationships. Examples of these larger groups of coevolving species include many butterflies that have coevolved with plants that produce showy flowers to attract them and fruit-eating birds that have coevolved with plants that produce small, fleshy fruits to disperse their seeds. Many of these interactions may have begun with a relationship between only a few species of animals and plants, but other species have evolved convergently, developing similar characteristics to exploit the existing relationships.

Convergence

      Unrelated species living in similar physical environments often are shaped by natural selection to have comparable morphological, physiological, or life history characteristics; they are said to evolve convergently (see The Rodent That Acts Like a Hippo). Convergence is a common feature of evolution and has major effects on the organization of biological communities. Interactions as well as characteristics can converge. Once an interaction evolves between two species, other species within the community may develop traits akin to those integral to the interaction, whereby the new species enters into the interaction. This type of convergence of species has occurred commonly in the evolution of mutualistic interactions, including those between pollinators and plants and those between vertebrates and fruits: some of the species drawn into the interaction become comutualists, contributing as well as benefiting from the relationship, whereas others become cheaters that only exploit the relationship (see above Interspecific interactions and the organization of communities: Mutualism: Mutualism and cheaters (community ecology)). Either way, these additional species may influence the future evolution of the interaction.

      A clear example of this kind of convergence of species is that between flowers and hawkmoths (hawk moth). In the tropical dry forest of Cañas in northwestern Costa Rica, there are 65 hawkmoth species and 31 native plant species adapted for hawkmoth pollination. The hawkmoth species are all members of one moth family called the Sphingidae. They have diverged into many species from a common moth ancestor, and it is therefore not surprising that they share the same basic hawkmoth body plan. The plants adapted for hawkmoth pollination, however, are distributed throughout 14 plant families. These species have evolved convergently from different ancestors to have floral shapes that attract hawkmoths.

mimicry complexes

      A different kind of convergence has occurred in the evolution of mimetic butterflies and other insects. Mimicry occurs when two or more species evolve to resemble and sometimes behave in ways similar to another species (see also mimicry). The most famous examples of mimicry are found among insects, and they take two forms: Müllerian mimicry, in which two species evolve convergently to have a similar appearance, and Batesian mimicry, in which one species evolves to resemble another. These different forms of mimicry are named after their 19th-century discoverers, the naturalists Fritz Müller and Henry Walter Bates. In the several decades following the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species in 1859, mimicry was the major example used to show how evolution occurs through the mechanism of natural selection.

      Müllerian mimicry can occur between two species that are distasteful to the same predators. Their predators learn to recognize and avoid distasteful prey by signals such as the colour (coloration) patterns of wings. If two distasteful species develop the same colour pattern, the predator has to learn only one pattern to avoid, speeding up the learning process and providing an advantage to the convergent prey species. One of the distasteful species may initially model itself on the other, but, if they are almost equal in abundance, the species may coevolve and converge on some intermediate pattern. Heliconius butterflies in Central and South America form mimicry complexes of two or more species, and the colour patterns that result from this convergence vary geographically.

      In Batesian mimicry a palatable species models itself on an unpalatable species to fool predators into believing that they are not tasty. Many flies have evolved to mimic bees, and some palatable butterflies have evolved to mimic unpalatable butterflies. If the mimic is uncommon, the convergence may not affect the unpalatable model, because it will be less likely that predators will consume many mimics by mistake and uncover the fraud. If the mimic, however, is abundant, its predators may eventually learn to dissociate its colour pattern with distastefulness because enough mimics would be inadvertently consumed and found palatable. Natural selection eventually would favour the evolution of a new colour pattern in the model species.

Coevolution among many species

 Coevolution between birds (bird) and fruit-bearing plant species is even more complicated than that between flowers and pollinators or between models and mimics, because so many plant species have evolved fleshy fruits for dispersal by birds and so many bird species have become adapted to eat fruits as part of their diets. Almost half of the 281 known terrestrial families of flowering plants include some species with fleshy fruits. About one-third of the 135 terrestrial bird families and one-fifth of the 107 terrestrial mammal families include some partly or wholly frugivorous species. Moreover, the evolution of these interactions is not limited to relationships between species within local communities. Many frugivorous birds migrate thousands of miles every year (Figure 3—>), and the ripening of the fruits of many plant species in temperate regions appears to be timed to the peak of bird migrations in the autumn. Consequently, the evolution of interactions between birds and fruits occurs over very broad geographic ranges. These interactions link more species in more communities than any other form of relationship among species. They show that the conservation of species demands a geographic, even global, perspective on how interactions between species are maintained within biological communities.

John N. Thompson

evolution of the biosphere

General features

      Life is characteristic of the Earth. The biosphere—which in relation to the diameter of the Earth is an extremely thin, life-supporting layer between the upper troposphere and the superficial layers of porous rocks and sediments—is clearly visible from space; it is responsible for the blue and green colours seen in satellite photographs of the Earth.

      All known forms of life are based on nucleic acid–protein systems, although life systems involving different chemical components are theoretically possible. Life appears to have developed on the Earth as soon as conditions permitted. Cooling of the hot, primordial Earth was an important factor. In a universe in which extremes of temperature are the norm, most life-forms are restricted to a relatively narrow range of about 0° to 100° C.

      The abiotic elements of the biosphere have been profoundly shaped by life, just as life has been molded by the environmental conditions that surround it. The biosphere has grown over time. Seven hundred million years ago it was a narrow and possibly discontinuous band encompassing only the shallower parts of the ocean. Today it reaches high into the atmosphere and deep into the ocean, invading even the tiny spaces in porous rocks. Thus, from the troposphere, which extends from 10 to 17 kilometres (6.2 to 9.9 miles) above sea level, to the deepest parts of the ocean (11 kilometres below the sea), to many hundreds of metres into the rocks of the Earth's crust, life thrives.

      Even in the most hostile of the Earth's environments—the frozen and parched south polar desert—algae find refuge in tiny spaces in translucent rocks. The rocks provide shelter from the wind and focus the rays of the Sun, acting as a greenhouse and allowing biological activity to take place for a few weeks each year. At the other extreme, there are thermophilic (heat-loving) bacteria inhabiting deep-sea volcanic vents in which the water is heated under immense pressure to extremely high temperatures. Some researchers believe that some hyperthermophilic organisms existing in these vents can survive at temperatures above 300° C. If the temperature drops much below the boiling point, they die.

      Life is changed through the process of evolution. Evolution is an inevitable consequence of inheritance, genetic variation, and competition arising from the number of individuals exceeding available resources. The result—natural selection—permits the perpetuation of some traits over others. Through billions of years this process has resulted in a great diversification of life-forms.

      The history of life is characterized by an acceleration of evolutionary change and unpredictable periods of extinction, often followed by rapid diversification. There is still much debate over the causes—and even the importance—of some of these trends and events. Perhaps the most hotly debated issues at present concern theories of extinction and diversification. In the early 1970s the evolutionary biologists Stephen Jay Gould and Niles Eldredge developed a model called “punctuated equilibrium,” which describes and explains some aspects of speciation (see evolution: Patterns and rates of species evolution: Reconstruction of evolutionary history: Gradual and punctuational evolution (evolution)). This theory postulates that evolution does not progress at a steady rate but rather in bursts, as brief periods of rapid evolutionary change are followed by long periods of relative evolutionary stasis.

      The degree of interdependence between organic and inorganic elements of the biosphere and the importance of both negative and positive feedback mechanisms in the maintenance of life increasingly are being recognized. At one extreme the British physicist James Lovelock and the American microbiologist Lynn Margulis have argued that, because the elements of the biosphere are so interdependent and interrelated, the biosphere can be viewed as a single, self-regulating organism, which they call Gaia.

      The Gaia hypothesis postulates that the physical conditions of the Earth's surface, oceans, and atmosphere have been made fit and comfortable for life and have been maintained in this state by the biota themselves. Evidence includes the relatively constant temperature of the Earth's surface that has been maintained for the past 3.5 billion years despite a 25 percent increase in energy coming from the Sun during that period. The remarkable constancy of the Earth's oceanic and atmospheric chemistry for the past 500 million years also is invoked to support this theory.

      Also integral to the Gaia hypothesis is the crucial involvement of the biota in the cycling of various elements vital to life. The role that living things play in both the carbon and sulfur cycles is a good example of the importance of biological activity and the complex interrelationship of organic and inorganic elements in the biosphere (see biosphere: The organism and the environment: Resources of the biosphere: Nutrient cycling: The carbon cycle (biosphere) and The sulfur cycle (biosphere)).

      Although the Gaia concept has provided intriguing models of the biosphere, many researchers do not believe the biosphere to be as fully integrated as the Gaia hypothesis suggests.

Geologic history (Earth, geologic history of) and early life-forms

Conditions prior to the emergence of life

      The Earth is approximately 4.6 billion years old. The oldest minerals known (zircon crystals) have been found in western Australia and are about 4.2 to 4.3 billion years old. The oldest known rocks have been found in Greenland and are 3.9 billion years old. They formed at a time when the Earth was fiery with volcanic activity and was pummeled by meteorites. During this time, sometimes referred to as the Hadean Eon, no atmosphere, ozone layer, continents, or oceans existed, and life could not be supported under such conditions (see geochronology: Geologic history of the Earth (Earth, geologic history of)).

      The formation of the atmosphere is believed to have resulted from the release of gases from volcanic eruptions (one example of outgassing). (See atmosphere: Development of the Earth's atmosphere: Processes affecting the composition of the early atmosphere (atmosphere, evolution of).) As the surface of the Earth cooled, water vapour in the newly formed atmosphere condensed to form the water of the oceans (ocean). Until 3.9 billion years ago the oceans may have been too hot to support life. By 2.8 billion years ago the first lightweight silica and aluminum rocks, which are typical of the continents, had formed. These rocks expanded rapidly so that by 2.6 billion years ago as much as 60 percent of the continental masses in existence today had formed, and the processes that permit continental drift had commenced (see plate tectonics).

The development of life

The building blocks

 The oldest undisputed fossils are about 3.5 billion years old (Figure 4—>). Life seems to have originated about 3.9 to 3.5 billion years ago. The basic chemical building blocks needed to form life are abundant on the Earth as well as elsewhere in the known universe. Life probably first arose through the self-assembly of small, organic molecules into larger ones. The surface of clays or crystals may have acted as a template in this process. Dehydration and freezing also may have played a role in the assembly of more complex molecules. (For a detailed survey of the development of life throughout the Earth's history, see geochronology.)

      During a series of famous experiments in the 1950s by Stanley Miller and Harold C. Urey (Urey, Harold C.) at the University of Chicago, atmospheric conditions predominating on Earth during the Archean Eon (3.8? to 2.5 billion years ago) were simulated. An electric spark, which substituted for lightning, was introduced to a mixture of gases that reacted to form amino acids (amino acid), the basic building blocks of proteins. Later experiments produced the nucleotide bases that make up the structure of DNA. How these basic building blocks were assembled to form life remains unclear. The process may have taken many millions of years.

The first life-forms

 The earliest simple life-forms in the fossil record are prokaryotes (prokaryote) (cellular organisms without a membrane-enclosed nucleus)—namely, the bacteria and cyanobacteria (formerly called blue-green algae). They have been found in rocks called stromatolites (stromatolite), structures that are layered, globular, generally calcareous, and often larger than a football. Stromatolites formed when colonies of prokaryotes became trapped in sediments; they are easily identifiable fossils, obvious to a researcher in the field. Thin-sectioning of fossil stromatolites occasionally reveals the microscopic, fossilized cells of the organisms that made them.

      Until about 2.5 to 2.8 billion years ago, the Earth's atmosphere was largely composed of carbon dioxide. As primitive bacteria and cyanobacteria had, through photosynthesis or related life processes, captured atmospheric carbon, depositing it on the seafloor, carbon was removed from the atmosphere. Through geologic processes possibly related to plate tectonics, this carbon was carried into the Earth's crust. At present approximately 0.1 percent of the carbon fixed annually is lost to the biosphere in this way. During the Proterozoic (2.5 billion to 542 million years ago), this process allowed some free oxygen to exist in the atmosphere for the first time.

      Cyanobacteria were also the first organisms to utilize water as a source of electrons and hydrogen in the photosynthetic process. Free oxygen was released as a result of this reaction and began to accumulate in the atmosphere, allowing oxygen-dependent life-forms to evolve.

The growing complexity

      Fossils discovered in 1992 in Michigan in the United States suggest that the first eukaryotes (eukaryote) appeared about two billion years ago. These complex, single-celled organisms such as amoebas differ from prokaryotes in that they have a membrane-bound nucleus, paired chromosomes, and, in most, mitochondria. They also require oxygen to function.

      Major changes in the evolution of the biosphere occurred in the late Precambrian (Precambrian time) (about 700 to 542 million years ago). Before this time, for about 1.4 billion years following their first appearance, single-celled eukaryotes had been the dominant life-form on the Earth. Then, in the late Precambrian, complex multicellular organisms (multicellular organism) (animals or plants composed of large numbers of more or less specialized cells) evolved and diversified rapidly.

Challenges to the development of life

      The development of complex life before this time may have been hindered by the atmospheric changes that the biota produced. The prior abundance of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere had provided an insulating, or greenhouse, effect. As organisms removed this gas from the atmosphere, the greenhouse effect was lessened and the Earth's climate changed. This occurrence is believed to have resulted in severe ice ages (ice age) that gripped the planet.

      The causes of the ice ages are still hotly debated. One hypothesis proposed in 1990 by the geologist John James Veevers links their occurrence to continental drift. According to this model, continental drift is cyclic: in the past 1.2 billion years the continents have fluctuated between a phase in which all the Earth's landmasses are separate and a “supercontinent” phase, in which these distinct landmasses formed one continent. During the supercontinent phase, little spreading of the seafloor, with its concomitant release of carbon dioxide from the Earth's mantle, would have occurred. Thus, less carbon dioxide would be present in the atmosphere and the greenhouse effect would be lessened, creating a cooler environment. Major ice ages are believed to coincide with each of the supercontinent phases. (However, the ice ages of the past two million years, which were short-lived and oscillating, are not thought to be part of this larger cycle.)

      The distribution of life-forms dependent on a nearby shoreline or a terrestrial habitat has been affected by the relative positions of the continents (continent). The cyclic breakup of supercontinents has provided many opportunities for evolution to continue in isolation. Today Australia is the most isolated of the continents, and its unique flora and fauna are well known. In the past other landmasses have been equally if not more isolated. A part of what is now Central Asia, known as Kazakhstania, was an isolated landmass between the latter half of the Cambrian (about 513 to 488 million years ago) and the first half of the Devonian (about 416 to 385 million years ago). On these and other landmasses unique floras and faunas evolved (see biogeographic region).

The diversification of life

extinction and diversification

      Until the 1980s the fossil record of early multicellular organisms was interpreted to be one of simple and rapid diversification. The paleontologist Adolf Seilacher and others have argued that this is incorrect and that the earliest faunas of multicellular organisms include few or no species that are directly ancestral to later faunas. As evidence they point to the early fauna from the Ediacaran (Ediacara fauna) period—animals living at the end of the Precambrian era, between 700 and 542 million years ago, that were named after the Ediacara Hills in South Australia. Few of the Ediacaran fauna are believed to be related to the later fauna of the Burgess Shale of western Canada (from the middle of the Cambrian [about 520 to 500 million years ago]). In this view the fossil record is believed to have resulted from at least two more or less independent evolutionary radiations of multicellular organisms followed by severe extinction. Thus extensive extinctions would have played an important role in the evolution of life even at this distant period. Other authorities disagree with this model and maintain that the Ediacaran animals have relatives from the Phanerozoic Era (encompassing the Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic [542 million years ago to the present]), such as sea pens and polychaete worms.

The Cambrian explosion

      The beginning of the Cambrian Period, now thought to date from 542 rather than 570 million years ago, witnessed an unparalleled explosion of life (see Paleozoic Era: Cambrian Period: Cambrian life (Cambrian Period)). Many of the major phyla that characterize modern animal life—various researchers recognize between 20 and 35—appear to have evolved at that time, possibly over a period of only a few million years. Many other phyla evolved during this time, the great majority of which became extinct during the following 50 to 100 million years. Ironically, many of the most successful modern phyla (including the chordates, which encompass all vertebrates) are rare elements in Cambrian assemblages; phyla that include the arthropods and sponges contained the most numerically dominant taxa (taxonomic groups) during the Cambrian, and those were the taxa that became extinct.

      The beginning of the Cambrian is marked by the evolution of hard parts such as calcium carbonate shells. These body parts fossilize more easily than soft tissues, and thus the fossil record becomes much more complete after their appearance. Many lineages of animals independently evolved hard parts at about the same time. The reasons for this are still debated, but a leading theory is that the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere had finally reached levels that allowed large, complex animals to exist. Oxygen levels may also have facilitated the metabolic processes that produce collagen, a protein building block that is the basis for hard structures in the body.

      Other major changes that occurred in the Early Cambrian (542 to 513 million years ago) include the development of animal species that burrowed into the sediments of the seafloor, rather than lying on top of it, and the evolution of the first carbonate reefs, which were built by spongelike animals called archaeocyathids.

      By the Early Cambrian the biosphere was still restricted to the margins of the world's oceans; no life was found on land (except possibly cyanobacteria [formerly known as blue-green algae] in moist sediment), relatively few pelagic species (biota living in the open sea) existed, and no organisms inhabited the ocean depths. Life in the shallow regions of the seafloor, however, was already well diversified. This early aquatic ecosystem included the relatively large carnivore Anomalocaris, the deposit-feeding trilobites (early arthropods) and mollusks, the suspension-feeding sponges, various scavenging arthropods, and possibly even parasites such as the onychophoran Aysheaia. Thus, it seems likely that a well-developed aquatic ecosystem was already in operation in the ocean shallows by this time. (For more information on aquatic ecosystems, see marine ecosystem.)

      Following the Cambrian Period, the biosphere continued to expand relatively rapidly. In the Ordovician Period (488 to 444 million years ago) the classic Paleozoic marine faunas, which included bryozoans, brachiopods, corals, nautiloids, and crinoids, developed (see Ordovician Period: Ordovician life (Ordovician Period)). Many marine species died off near the end of the Ordovician because of environmental changes. The Early Silurian (Silurian Period) (444 to 421 million years ago) marks a time when a rapid evolution of many suspension-feeders in the oceans occurred (see Silurian Period: Silurian life (Silurian Period)). As a result, pelagic predators such as nautiloids became abundant. Gnathostome fishes, the oldest craniates, became common during the Late Silurian (421 to 416 million years ago).

The emergence of terrestrial life

  Plants invaded the land (Figure 5—>) in the latter part of the Silurian, about 420 million years ago, and by 410 million years ago various arthropods were found on land. By the middle of the Devonian (Devonian Period) (about 390 to 380 million years ago) true spiders capable of spinning silk had evolved. Winged insects followed some 50 million years later. By the Late Devonian (385 to 359 million years ago) some vertebrates also had emerged onto the land. They were to give rise to the chordates (chordate)—amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals (Figure 6—>).

plant life

      Terrestrial plants are believed to have evolved from the chlorophytes, such as the green algae. Their survival on land demanded special adaptations (adaptation) to prevent them from drying out and to aid them in obtaining nutrients and in reproducing. The evolution of cutin, which forms a waxy layer on plants (the cuticle), and stomata helped to prevent desiccation, the development of roots and supporting tissues helped to provide nourishment, and spores and seeds provided means of reproducing (see reproductive system, plant).

      Fungi (fungus) were very early partners of the land plants. Mycorrhizal fungi appear to have been associated with the roots of such ancient plants as Rhynia (a possible ancestor of ferns), horsetails, and seed plants, while lichenlike plant fragments have been preserved in ancient rocks (lichens are a symbiotic association of fungi and algae).

 The earliest widespread land plant that has been preserved, and also the oldest known vascular plant (tracheophyte) (a plant that possesses specialized tissues, allowing transport of water and nutrients as well as providing support), is Cooksonia (Figure 5—>). This ancestral plant was mosslike in structure; it has been found in rocks 410 million years old on several continents. Cooksonia, or plants similar to it, soon gave rise to all other divisions of vascular plants. Some of the earliest vascular plants include the proto-lycopod Baragwanathia and Rhynia, both of the Late Silurian to Early Devonian. By the Middle Devonian the development of a cambium and phloem in some plant lineages allowed tree-size species to develop. The giant lycopods, relatives of modern club mosses, were particularly abundant at this time. Seeds or seedlike structures soon followed in a number of plant lineages (see plant: Evolution and paleobotany (plant)).

Animal life

      In adapting to life on land, the earliest terrestrial vertebrates (vertebrate) faced problems similar to those of the plants. Some members of a group of fleshy-finned, air-breathing fish—the crossopterygians (crossopterygian)—are believed to have been the ancestors of the land-dwelling vertebrates. Eusthenopteron is the best-known of these.

      By the Late Devonian the earliest tetrapods (tetrapod) had appeared. Forms such as Ichthyostega and Acanthostega (both from eastern Greenland) are the best-known. Aptly described as fish with legs, they are classified as labyrinthodont amphibians, which retained many fishlike features, including gills, up to eight digits per foot, and a tail fin (see amphibian: Evolution (amphibian)).

      In the Devonian Period a rapid evolution of the fishes occurred; all the major groups appeared or diversified during this time. Among the best-known and most characteristic of the fishes of the period are the placoderms (placoderm) (extinct jawed fishes). Many were heavily armoured species that led a bottom-dwelling existence, while others were pelagic and more lightly scaled. They became extinct at the end of the Devonian (see Devonian Period: Devonian life (Devonian Period)).

      During the Carboniferous (359 to 299 million years ago) and Early Permian (299 to 271 million years ago) the labyrinthodonts became the dominant life-forms, evolving into myriad species. Many lineages became extinct at the close of the Permian (251 million years ago), although at least one held on at high latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere until the Early Cretaceous (146 to 99.6 million years ago). The lissamphibians, including the frogs and salamanders, made their first undisputed appearance in the fossil record in the Early Triassic (251 to 245 million years ago).

The progression of evolution

A period of extensive glaciation and drought: The Permian Period

      The interval between the middle of the Carboniferous and the Early Permian is characterized by a prolonged ice age (see Paleozoic Era: Carboniferous Period: Carboniferous environment (Carboniferous Period)). All the continents were joined into one supercontinent (Pangaea (Pangea)), and a vast ice sheet covered what is now Antarctica, southern Australia, most of India, the southern half of Africa, and much of eastern South America. The giant lycopods, which thrived in the warm swamps of the Devonian and Early Carboniferous (359 to 318 million years ago), vanished as a result. In their place the now extinct seed ferns of the so-called Archaeopteris flora became abundant. On southern continents the Permian is characterized by the dominance of the Glossopteris flora. These enigmatic trees and shrubs may have given rise to the major plant groups of the Mesozoic Era (251 to 65.5 million years ago) and possibly even the flowering plants (see angiosperm: Paleobotany and evolution (angiosperm)). By the end of the Permian, gymnosperms (gymnosperm) (seed plants whose seeds lack a covering) such as ginkgoes and early conifers had appeared. By the Early Triassic they had become widespread in drier environments that other plants could not tolerate (see gymnosperm: Evolution and paleobotany (gymnosperm)).

      The close of the Permian is marked by perhaps the greatest well-documented extinction event on the Earth (see Triassic Period: Triassic life (Triassic Period)). In all, about 96 percent of the marine species vanished, including the horn and tabulate corals, trilobites, eurypterids, most groups of nautiloids, many echinoderm groups, and many brachiopods and bryozoans. Typical of the extent of the extinctions was the fate of bryozoans. Among the many earlier groups, only one lineage of bryozoans (the cyclostomes) survived the Permian crisis. Bryozoans remained rare until the early Mesozoic, becoming abundant again during the Cretaceous Period (146 to 65.5 million years ago) and remaining so into modern times. Vertebrates were less affected by this event than invertebrates.

The reptilian (reptile) radiation

      The earliest reptilian fossils have been found in rocks from the Carboniferous, about 340 million years ago. These early reptiles gave rise to the synapsid reptiles, which became abundant by the Permian. Synapsids were terrestrial predators that included some very large species such as Dimetrodon, which had elongated neural spines, forming a “sail” along their backs. One group of synapsids, the therapsids, or mammallike reptiles, gave rise to mammals (mammal) in the Late Triassic.

      Primitive diapsid reptiles gave rise to two principal groups, the lepidosaurs (“scaly reptiles”), which includes lizards and snakes, and the archosaurs (archosaur) (“ruling reptiles”), which includes dinosaurs and crocodiles. They first appeared in the Late Carboniferous, about 300 million years ago, and for 60 million years afterward they remained small, with generalized characteristics. Only after the great Permian extinction did they begin to diversify and dominate the environment as they gained in size, abundance, and variety.

      The Triassic Period (251 to 200 million years ago) began with relatively warm and wet conditions, but as it progressed conditions became increasingly hot and dry. During this time primitive lepidosaurs flourished; the sphenodontids (of whom the only surviving member is New Zealand's tuatara) were particularly abundant. Lizards were present by the Triassic, while snakes evolved from monitor-like lizards about 120 million years ago during the Early Cretaceous.

      The archosaurs dominated terrestrial life from the Middle Triassic (245 to 228 million years ago) until the end of the Cretaceous. The best-known archosaurs were the dinosaurs (dinosaur), but pterosaurs (flying reptiles), crocodiles, and birds (bird) are included in the group.

 Birds are believed to have evolved from an order of primitive archosaurs, Thecodontia. The earliest fossil evidence of birds is that of the crow-sized Archaeopteryx (see photograph—>), from the Late Jurassic.

The diversity of Cretaceous biota

      During the Cretaceous Period large dinosaurs (dinosaur) such as the predatory Tyrannosaurus, the herbivorous Triceratops, and the sauropod Alamosaurus were dominant forms on land. Marine life included invertebrates such as globigerinid foraminiferans and calcareous radiolarians, which were abundant in the Jurassic Period (200 to 146 million years ago). Their remains were to coat the ocean floor for the first time with calcareous ooze, which is useful in correlating the age of sedimentary rocks at various locations. Modern groups of mollusks such as clams and carnivorous snails, along with teleost fish (predecessors of most modern fish), all first appeared while plesiosaurs, pliosaurs, and mosasaurs (the last gigantic relatives of goannas) were the major predators. The pterosaurs were the dominant large flying animals. Gymnosperms such as ginkgoes, cycads, and ferns were the dominant plants, although angiosperms (angiosperm) became increasingly prevalent toward the end of the period (see angiosperm: Paleobotany and evolution (angiosperm)). Birds, which first appeared in the Jurassic, and mammals, which evolved in the Triassic, were also in existence but were minor components of the Earth's fauna, in contrast to their dominance in the Tertiary Period (65.5 to 1.6 million years ago). It seems likely that various insect groups diversified rapidly at this time in response to the ecological opportunities opened by the spread of flowering plants (see Mesozoic Era: Cretaceous Period: Cretaceous life (Cretaceous Period)).

Climatic effects (paleoclimatology)

      The maximum development of greenhouse (greenhouse effect) conditions occurred in the Cretaceous and was probably associated with an increase of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (see geochronology: Cretaceous environment: Paleoclimate (Cretaceous Period)). There were no polar ice caps during this time, and land within both the Arctic (Arctic Circle) and Antarctic circles was able to support a diversity of plant and animal life. The sea level was considerably higher than at present, and the low-lying parts of the continents formed vast but shallow inland seas. This habitat supported various large bivalves such as the reef-forming rudistid and the metre- (3.3-foot-) long, mussellike Inoceramus.

      Studies of newly discovered Cretaceous faunas and floras from the Arctic and Antarctic have revealed interesting differences and some anomalies associated with greenhouse conditions. The Arctic faunas were dominated by large dinosaurs, which are thought to have been migratory. Smaller endothermic animals such as mammals were present, but small ectothermic species such as lizards were not. The Antarctic faunas are strikingly different. Small, herbivorous, bird-hipped dinosaurs such as Atlascopcosaurus were the most abundant of the fauna. Turtles and lungfish also were present, while the largest carnivores were the two-metre-high species of Allosaurus and the late-surviving labyrinthodonts. The dinosaurs and other Antarctic fauna apparently did not migrate and must have endured several months of near-freezing conditions and total darkness. How they coped remains unclear.

Mass extinction

      The Cretaceous Period came to an abrupt end about 65.5 million years ago with a massive extinction event. Dinosaurs, ammonites and most belemnites (both related to squid and nautiluses), rudist clams, and toothed birds all became extinct. Indeed, all animal species that reached an adult weight of approximately 25 kilograms (55 pounds) at sexual maturity appear to have disappeared at this time. Smaller organisms such as calcareous plankton, glass sponges, freshwater fish, and brachiopods were severely diminished in diversity, as were gymnosperms and angiosperms of the laurel group.

      The cause of this—one of the world's great extinction events—is still hotly debated. Many biological, climatic, and extraterrestrial factors have been put forward to explain it. The asteroid theory, proposed by Walter and Luis Alvarez about 1980, postulates that the extinction was a result of the Earth's collision with an asteroid about 10 to 20 kilometres in diameter. It is generally supposed that the impact caused vast amounts of particulate matter to be emitted into the upper atmosphere, obscuring the Sun and resulting in a drastic reduction in photosynthetic activity and a global cooling (see Cretaceous Period: Cretaceous life: Mass extinctions (Cretaceous Period)).

      The asteroid theory has promoted renewed interest in extinctions in general. Some researchers have postulated that extinction events are cyclic, occurring approximately every 26 million years. Although this theory is not widely accepted, there is an emerging consensus that extinction events have been more frequent, more catastrophic, and more variable in effect than was previously realized. It is also becoming apparent that, because they randomly influence the survival or extinction of various species, extinctions are one of the major determinants of evolutionary direction.

A period of transition

      The evolutionary and ecological responses of species surviving the Cretaceous extinction appear to have been rapid. One surviving species of fern is thought to have covered 90 percent of the land surface of the Earth within 10,000 years of the catastrophe. Various groups, including mammals, birds, flowering plants and their associated insects, barnacles, and bryozoans, diversified rapidly. Differentiation also occurred as flora and fauna were separated by continental shifting (see biogeographic region) (biogeographic region).

Mammalian (mammal) diversification and rise to dominance

      Among the three groups of modern mammals, egg-laying monotremes (monotreme) and marsupials (marsupial) have persisted in relatively small numbers and have been most successful on the southern continents. The monotremes are the most primitive of living mammals, and only two types have survived—the duck-billed platypus and the echidnas. The third mammalian group, the placental mammals (placental mammal), has met with the greatest success, giving rise to flying forms (bats), marine species (whales, sirenians, and seals), and an extraordinary variety of land-based forms.

      The diversification of the placental mammals was rapid. A few million years after the extinction of the dinosaurs, some placental groups such as the arctocyonid plant-eaters (which gave rise to the ungulates) had quadrupled their number of species. The placentals also increased in size and ecological range. At the time of the Cretaceous extinction the largest placentals were no larger than a cat. By the end of the Paleocene Epoch (65.5 to 55.8 million years ago), about 10 million years later, species weighing more than 800 kilograms had evolved. By this time mammals had diversified to fill the major ecological niches, including those of large herbivores, carnivores, scavengers, and more specialized types. Thus during the Paleocene the most rapid evolution of mammal genera and families occurred. The flowering plants and their associated insects expanded rapidly during the Tertiary as well. They also differentiated into distinct floras and faunas following their isolation on the various continents.

The appearance of primates (primate)

      Among the placental mammals to appear during the Late Cretaceous were the primates. A small group of large-bodied, tailless species—the apes—eventually diverged to give rise to a bipedal lineage about 3.5 million years ago. The genus Homo evolved from this line 2 million years ago. Between 200,000 and 100,000 years ago modern humans, Homo sapiens, had evolved; they are believed to have left their Afro-Eurasian homeland for the first time, invading Australasia about 40,000 years ago. By 11,000 years ago they had entered the Americas, thus completing their colonization of the habitable continents (see evolution, human (human evolution)).

Climatic (climate) fluctuations

      The period of time following the Late Cretaceous extinction event, the Tertiary Period (65.5 to 1.6 million years ago), was marked by climatic fluctuations with a general trend toward cooling. The Early Eocene (Eocene Epoch) (55.8 to 48.6 million years ago) was warm; however, by the end of the Eocene (33.9 million years ago) the world experienced an abrupt drop in temperature. At the beginning of the Miocene (23.03 million years ago) warmer conditions returned, only to disappear by the end of the epoch (5.33 million years ago). Since then the climate has oscillated, culminating about 2.4 million years ago in the onset of the ice ages, with many advances and retreats of the world's ice caps.

      In the latter part of the Eocene (about 40 million years ago) Antarctica had begun to develop significant snowfields and associated glaciers, the first to appear on the continent since the Permian. An ice cap had developed by 16.5 to 13 million years ago, with its most rapid development occurring between 14.8 and 14 million years ago. By 6 million years ago a vast ice cap had finally linked East and West Antarctica.

Effects of aquatic changes

      In the latter Eocene the temperature of the bottom water of the southern ocean dropped dramatically, by 4° to 5° C. This appears to have been caused by the increasing physical, and thus thermal, isolation of Antarctica and its surrounding seas. The isolation was completed with the opening of the Drake Passage between Antarctica and South America and the establishment of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current sometime before the Early Miocene (23.03 to 15.97 million years ago). This ultimately led to the development of the Antarctic Bottom Water—cold, deep, nutrient-rich water that today originates at Antarctica and flows north to all the major oceans of the world (see ocean: Paleoceanography (ocean)). The development of the Antarctic Bottom Water has had a profound effect on life in the oceans owing to its novel nutrient-carrying capacity. Because of this ability, it is believed to have led to major changes in nutrient cycling when it was first established. It may, for example, be responsible for the abundance of krill and thus for the evolution of the great mysticete (filter-feeding) whales, which first appeared in the Oligocene (33.9 to 23.03 million years ago).

Periods of glaciation (glacial stage)

      The development of an extensive ice cap in Antarctica six million years ago led to a dramatic fall in sea level. At its height, the terminal Miocene ice age saw Antarctica's Ross Ice Shelf extend about 300 to 400 kilometres north of its present position. This event isolated the Mediterranean Sea, which experienced numerous cycles of evaporation and refilling during subsequent oscillations in temperature. As a consequence of these changes, approximately one million cubic kilometres of salt and gypsum were removed from the world's oceans and now lie buried in sedimentary deposits below the Mediterranean Sea. These events left the world's oceans approximately 6 percent less salty than before. This in turn contributed to the cooling of the global climate, because the reduced salinity raised the freezing point of the oceans. This promoted the formation of high-latitude sea ice and also enhanced the reflectivity of the Earth's surface (albedo).

      The ice ages of the Late Miocene (11.61 to 5.33 million years ago) and Pleistocene appear to have been caused by events different from those of earlier ice ages, such as those of the Carboniferous and Early Permian. Variations in the tilt and precession, or wobble, of the Earth's axis and in the shape of the Earth's orbit are thought to be responsible for the more recent ice ages, which recur approximately every 100,000 years (see Cenozoic Era: Pleistocene Epoch: Cause of the climatic changes and glaciations (Pleistocene Epoch)).

Quaternary events

Megafaunal and other extinction events

      During the Pleistocene (Pleistocene Epoch) the diversification of mammals continued, accompanied by localized and fewer widespread extinction events. In the terminal Pleistocene (50,000 to 10,000 years ago), however, extinction events occurred without a large number of groups of larger vertebrates being replaced. The species that became extinct, which included mammoths, mastodons, ground sloths, and giant beavers, are collectively known as megafauna. The late Pleistocene extinction of megafauna did not occur synchronously nor was it of equal magnitude throughout the world (see Cenozoic Era: Pleistocene Epoch: Pleistocene fauna and flora: Megafaunal extinctions (Pleistocene Epoch)).

      Considerable doubt exists regarding the timing of the megafaunal extinctions on various landmasses. Currently, evidence suggesting that the earliest mass megafaunal extinctions occurred in Australia and New Guinea about 30,000 or more years ago is emerging. During this time large marsupials such as diprotodons, reptiles such as the seven-metre-long goanna, Megalania, and large flightless birds vanished. Eighty-six percent of the Australian vertebrate genera whose members weighed more than 40 kilograms became extinct.

      Much smaller extinction events occurred in Africa, Asia, and Europe earlier in the Pleistocene, removing very large species such as rhinoceroses, elephants, and the largest artiodactyls. Other mass megafaunal extinction events occurred on the Eurasian tundra about 12,000 years ago (affecting mammoths, Irish elk, and woolly rhinoceroses); in North and South America they occurred about 11,000 years ago (affecting a wide variety of species, including elephants, giant sloths, lions, and bears). These extinctions have removed 29 percent of the vertebrate genera weighing more than 40 kilograms from Europe and 73 percent of such genera from North America.

      Until 1,000 to 2,000 years ago the megafauna of large, long-isolated landmasses such as New Zealand and Madagascar survived. Gigantic birds such as the elephant birds of Madagascar and the moas of New Zealand disappeared after the Pleistocene in the past few thousand years.

Causes

      The causes of the extinctions of the late Pleistocene are still debated; however, there is widespread agreement that the arrival of humans heralded the most recent extinction events in New Zealand and Madagascar. Earlier events are less well understood, with researchers divided between whether human-induced change or an alteration in the climate was the principal cause.

      Recently the effects of megafaunal extinction on vegetation and climate, particularly in Australia, have received attention. Australian megafaunal extinction, followed by an increase in the incidence of fire, may have led to structural changes in vegetation, which resulted in decreased effective precipitation, more impoverished soils, and even the failure of Lake Eyre to fill during otherwise favourable conditions.

Impact of human activities

      The past 10,000 years have seen dramatic changes in the biosphere. The invention of agriculture and animal husbandry and the eventual spread of these practices throughout the world have allowed humans to co-opt a large portion of the available productivity of the Earth. Calculations show that humans currently use approximately 40 percent of the energy of the Sun captured by organisms on land. Use of such an inordinately large proportion of the Earth's productivity by a single animal species is unique in the history of the planet.

      The human population continues to expand at the rate of approximately 80 million persons per year and may reach 10 billion sometime in the 21st century. Changes to the atmosphere caused by complex technology and the increasing population threaten to cause major disruptions to the biosphere. Among the most important changes is the release of greenhouse gases—including carbon dioxide, methane, and chlorofluorocarbons—into the atmosphere.

      Despite the enormous advances made in understanding the biosphere over the past few decades, there is clearly much more to learn. Many would agree that we are just beginning to perceive the complex process that keeps the biosphere hospitable to life.

Timothy Fridtjof Flannery

Additional Reading

Community ecology

Joseph Cone, Fire Under the Sea (1991), discusses the discovery of deep-sea vents and the unique communities that have evolved around them. Joel E. Cohen, Frédéric Briand, and Charles M. Newman, Community Food Webs (1990), provides a technical and mathematical analysis of the structure of food webs and of the general patterns that have been observed in 113 previously published food webs for a wide variety of biological communities. Stuart L. Pimm, The Balance of Nature?: Ecological Issues in the Conservation of Species and Communities (1991), thoroughly analyzes the ways in which food webs structure biological communities. Wallace Arthur, The Green Machine: Ecology and the Balance of Nature (1990), gives a nontechnical account of some aspects of the structure of biological communities. E.O. Wilson and Frances M. Peter (eds.), Biodiversity (1988), evaluates the current state and future of the topic. E.O. Wilson, The Diversity of Life (1992), masterfully recounts the origin of biodiversity, its maintenance within biological communities, and the threats posed by current human activities. John Terborgh, Where Have All the Birds Gone?: Essays on the Biology and Conservation of Birds that Migrate to the American Tropics (1989), discusses how bird population and community ecology are affected by migration over large geographic scales and by the wholesale deforestation of temperate and tropical habitats. Robert E. Ricklefs and Dolph Schluter (eds.), Species Diversity in Ecological Communities: Historical and Geographical Perspectives (1993), explores the ecological bases for worldwide patterns in the diversity of species.Henry F. Howe and Lynn C. Westley, Ecological Relationships of Plants and Animals (1988); and Warren G. Abrahamson (ed.), Plant-Animal Interactions (1989), provide good introductory treatments of the variety of ways in which plants and animals interact. A more advanced treatment of the subject may be found in Peter W. Price et al. (eds.), Plant-Animal Interactions: Evolutionary Ecology in Tropical and Temperate Regions (1991).Friedrich G. Barth, Insects and Flowers: The Biology of a Partnership (1985; originally published in German, 1982), examines the wide variety of ways in which plants have evolved to be pollinated by insects and insects have evolved to exploit the resources offered by flowers. Vernon Ahmadjian and Surindar Paracer, Symbiosis: An Introduction to Biological Associations (1986); and A.E. Douglas, Symbiotic Interactions (1994), provide nontechnical treatments of some of the many ways in which various species have evolved in association with other species and how they have developed intimate and complex relationships. John N. Thompson, The Coevolutionary Process (1994), comprehensively treats the specialization and coevolution of species. Peter R. Grant, Ecology and Evolution of Darwin's Finches (1986), summarizes the long-term research on how Galápagos finches have radiated from a single species into many species with different niches within the biological communities on these isolated islands.John N. Thompson

Evolution of the biosphere

J.E. Lovelock, Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth (1979, reissued 1987), a popular work, develops the idea that the biosphere is a single organism. A dated but comprehensive introduction to paleontology and the history of life can be found in Alfred Sherwood Romer, Vertebrate Paleontology, 3rd ed. (1966). Carroll Lane Fenton and Mildred Adams Fenton, The Fossil Book: A Record of Prehistoric Life, rev. and expanded ed. (1989), is an encyclopaedic documentation of the diversity of fossils worldwide. Patricia Vickers-Rich et al. (eds.), Vertebrate Palaeontology of Australasia (1991), summarizes the vertebrate fossil record and the major climatic and tectonic events in Australasia. Stephen Jay Gould, Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History (1989), an accessible work, traces the Cambrian explosion of multicellular life some 515 million years ago, centring on the discoveries made in western Canada. Rick Gore, “The Cambrian Period: Explosion of Life,” National Geographic, 184(4):120–136 (October 1993), an excellent, brilliantly illustrated article, deals with the early history of life, focusing on the soft-bodied faunas of the Cambrian Period and the poorly known Chengjiang fossils from Yunnan, China. Patricia Vickers-Rich and Thomas Hewitt Rich, Wildlife of Gondwana (1993), chronicles the evolution of life on the southern continents over the past 500 million years. Patricia Vickers-Rich and Thomas Hewitt Rich, “Australia's Polar Dinosaurs,” Scientific American, 269(1):50–55 (July 1993), discusses life at the poles 120 million years ago. Paul S. Martin and Richard G. Klein (eds.), Quaternary Extinctions: A Prehistoric Revolution (1984), is the most thorough treatment of Pleistocene extinctions to date, covering all theories and all geographic regions. Timothy Fridtjof Flannery, The Future Eaters: An Ecological History of the Australasian Lands and People (1994), recounts the ecological history of the biota of Australasia, detailing the consequences of the Pleistocene extinction. Ralph Molnar and Margaret O'Reagan,”Dinosaur Extinctions,” Australian Natural History, 22(12):560–570 (1989), summarizes the plethora of theories concerning dinosaur extinctions. Fred Pearce, Turning Up the Heat (1989), is a readable account of the greenhouse effect and the natural cycles controlling the Earth's climate. An excellent, well-illustrated treatment of changing Earth climates with particular reference to the Australian flora can be found in Mary E. White, After the Greening: The Browning of Australia (1994). Coverage of the impact of human activities on the evolution of the biosphere can be found in Paul R. Ehrlich and Anne H. Ehrlich, The Population Explosion (1990), and in the books by Arthur, cited in the community ecology section above.Timothy Fridtjof Flannery

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